Two gardai who climbed on to a slate roof to arrest two men fell 14 feet on to beer crates in an attic when the roof gave way, the High Court heard yesterday.
Mr Justice Budd awarded Garda Christopher Joyce (48), of Ballina Garda station, £10,257 in his injuries claim brought under the Garda Compensation Acts.
Ms Jeri Ward, for Garda Joyce, said her client had been called to a public house in Ballina at 2 a.m. on May 19th, 1992, to assist gardai attempting to apprehend two men on the roof which was three storeys high.
Garda Joyce said that when he climbed on to a flat roof he heard one man say they would throw the other garda over the parapet. One man pulled him towards a low pitched roof adjoining the flat roof. All four were standing on the parapet. An assailant kicked some slates off the roof and the roof began to collapse.
Garda Joyce said that, seven years after the incident, he still suffered from neck and shoulder pain.